Dear All, This is a great forum.. and I hope that someone can please solve my dilemma. I am an Indian national on J1 Visa in the US. However, I have never paid taxes in India. I did my PhD and was working in Germany for 7 years paying taxes there. Is my tax residency Germany or is it India? Because if I claim it to be India, the two years tax treaty becomes retroactive while for Germany it does not.

Germany would be your country of tax residency if you lived there before coming to the US. You can cliam the treaty with Germany. Just be prepared to proof your residency in Germany.

I am not sure. It should depend upon your passport citizenship. You should ask AtlantaTaxExpert.